This would be illegal (in the US at least) for several reasons we need not bring up lol. You can't block old systems, as millions of consoles would literally be barred. Compare that so say a couple hundred thousand that they would sell of the new one, taking this road would be self-destruction for the company (at least in the gaming aspect).

Your right in thinking that it would be illegal. However, remember what happened when they rolled out FW 3.21 that removed Linux (an advirtised feature, btw), and look how that turned out. I'll admit that I haven't religously been following whats happening in the PS3 scene, but I know I've head sweet fudge all about the class action lawsuit in the last 6 months.

It is reported that the new systems will each come with a PS eye; however, they will be permanently wired with remote monitoring capabilities. As soon as you touch your PS3 inappropriately, a shift worker in India will press a red button that momentarily puts your system in presentation mode with non-skippable commercials showing PSNs features.

Looks like mines facing the wall from now on

I've heard if it's used inappropriately the controller also works like a taser and sends 40,000 volts through which ever body part it's touching.

To quote: Just wanted to let you guys know that Amazon (for the US anyway) has begun shipping out the 3001-A's to customers. There is actually a few more changes to the hardware then I noticed in the pics (I have one). the Wifi light was removed but not the HDD light, the PS logo above the drive is now silk screened rather then an emblem while the silk screened SONY logo was removed in favor of an indented logo.

Also the power and eject buttons have changed color to a darker gray and the silver/clear overlay around them is removed.

Lastly the entire casing is now a matte finish besides the power button/drive face area, no more glossy front and side plastic, which considering how easily this this gets crappy looking is a good improvement. The unit is also lighter then the 2001-A (not sure why) also I believe they may have finally engineered out the annoying plastic pop from case expansion/contraction with this model, but I will need to test it longer to find out for sure. I can take some pics of the two units if anyone feels its necessary.

I am not capable of giving you a 100% certain answer on this just yet, let me play a few games that push the system's fan up (uncharted 2 and FFXIII usually did the trick with the 2001-A). Right now with each sitting side by side, the 3001's fan sounds like a very light humm and the 2001's sounds like a shhhh (I know this sounds silly but Im doing my best to tell you how it sounds :P). What I can tell you is that when I enter the room I predominantly hear the 2001-A over the new unit.

No they removed the LED backlighting from the actual buttons. The little green and blue LEDs are still there above the buttons, unless thats what your talking about. Like an above poster said the system looks off when playing a blu-ray.

As above right now it sounds like the 3001-A is quieter then the 2001-A I have right next to it as the 2001 is making most of the fan noise in the room (keeping in mind both are doing the exact same thing) Nope thats still there just the green wifi LED is gone.

Yes it is from the case expanding and contracting from extreme heat changes. The original Slim and the 2500 both get very hot likely due to the internal power supply as most of the units are hottest across the top back of the console. The 2500 that I have with me, when fully heated up separates slightly in the middle of the top of the back so that you can actually depress it about a centimeter or so due to the case expansion.

The good news is so far I have no cracking/popping from the 3001-A even after being on for 4 hours (for reference the other Slims I have owned and tested all started popping a hour after being turned on). With another user confirming that his does not pop either that may have (finally) engineered this out. Worth noting that you can get the older slims to pop less if you loosen the bottom screws a half/whole turn on each.

Yup the Xillia model was originally the first time we saw a 3001-A, the changes are not very noticeable in the pics they showed but you can see it has the indented SONY logo on the left side. Now that I think about it because the newer units removed more lights and the silver/clear accent piece around the buttons the console reminds me even more of the PS2. Pics incoming guys.

All I can tell you is that with both of them on for same amount of time while doing the same thing the 2501-A was louder then the 3001-A, in fact the 2501-A was all I heard when walking back into the room. I will be playing some games to test this more today, also despite a smaller fan the new unit does not get as hot to the touch.

Also worth noting that the blue LED above the disc drive eject button is no longer there, just the red/green above the power (did not notice this until now).

Agreed until I hear otherwise I do not notice any difference in the noise level on this newer unit, playing uncharted 2 now. This new unit has been on since last night and its nowhere near as hot as my previous slim nor does it seem any louder. Also still have not heard the annoying plastic pop after all this time.

Agreed about the finish, that's why I am glad they removed most of the remaining shiny plastic with this new model. Electronics get crappy looking too fast with a shiny plastic finish, also wiping said finger prints off leaves scratches which also look terrible. So which FW did it come with? 3.65

Ambient temp in the room is 79 to 80 F. Running Uncharted 2 now have been running background downloads and blu-rays. Fan noise remains un changed, is definitely not louder then the 2501-A (at least to my ears and I am putting my head right next to the system) sound is different though like I said earlier its more of a humm where the older fan was a shhh/whoosh type sound.

Also the system is a good deal cooler to the touch in the middle and rear of the console then the 2501-A I have.

Finally, Calimba has revealed that the new PS3 CHECH-3001A models come with OFW 3.65 and shared a picture of the Macronix MX29GL IC (below) confirming that this model utilizes the same pinout as previous revisions.

A lint-free cloth can be used to wipe the glossy case of the older models without scratching them.

But even a few scratches it still looks way kooler than the PS2-style they are going for now.

They just keep chopping more components off with every release. Take BC chips out, take card readers out, chop some USB ports off, take out touch sensitive buttons, take shiny case away, chop a few LED lights out...

I prefer my power supply to be inside the PS3, where the fans can keep it cool. Remember the PS2s with the external power supply on the power cord? I remember them getting very hot, and some even melted.

The ONLY good thing about these new models is reduced power usage and heat output which should be obvious since they keep taking more and more hardware components out the device.

Your right in thinking that it would be illegal. However, remember what happened when they rolled out FW 3.21 that removed Linux (an advirtised feature, btw), and look how that turned out. I'll admit that I haven't religously been following whats happening in the PS3 scene, but I know I've head sweet fudge all about the class action lawsuit in the last 6 months.

Removing a feature is much different than killing all the previous versions of the console.